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<TITLE>RE: [arin-ppml] clarification of Board actions Feb 2 and Mar 18,2009</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>So do you think ARIN needs to ask for all address space to be re-justified, documented and when there is obvious under-utilization they reclaim it?<BR>
<BR>
Bill Darte<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
-----Original Message-----<BR>
From: arin-ppml-bounces@arin.net on behalf of Ted Mittelstaedt<BR>
Sent: Mon 3/30/2009 7:38 PM<BR>
To: 'Lee Howard'; ppml@arin.net<BR>
Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] clarification of Board actions Feb 2 and Mar 18,2009<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
> -----Original Message-----<BR>
> From: arin-ppml-bounces@arin.net<BR>
> [<A HREF="mailto:arin-ppml-bounces@arin.net">mailto:arin-ppml-bounces@arin.net</A>] On Behalf Of Lee Howard<BR>
> Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 9:07 AM<BR>
> To: ppml@arin.net<BR>
> Subject: [arin-ppml] clarification of Board actions Feb 2 and<BR>
> Mar 18, 2009<BR>
><BR>
<BR>
<BR>
> The<BR>
> Board has been concerned for some time that the lack of a<BR>
> liberalized transfer policy would create legal risk: that we<BR>
> had not provided a mechanism to improve the efficient<BR>
> utilization of previously-allocated resources, and that this<BR>
> risk was significant enough to jeopardize ARIN's ability to<BR>
> fulfill its stewardship mission.<BR>
><BR>
<BR>
I have been saying this same thing for years and this is<BR>
why I proposed the POC cleanup. HOWEVER it must be clear that<BR>
this statement presumes that the legal risk is created by<BR>
the lack of a liberalized transfer policy. This is a fundamentally<BR>
flawed argument. The legal risk is NOT created by this,<BR>
the legal risk is created by INSUFFICIENT utilization of<BR>
assignable IPv4.<BR>
<BR>
The fear argument goes something like this:<BR>
<BR>
When IPv4 runs out some large cash-rich org will request a<BR>
block and be denied. That org will then spend it's money<BR>
lobbying it's nation's government that the RIR's know that<BR>
there's lots of available IPv4 tied up in old assignments that<BR>
aren't being used, and that because ARIN has the bulk of it,<BR>
and ARIN hasn't done enough to scavenge out this stale addressing,<BR>
that ARIN is no longer functioning, and that the U.N. needs<BR>
to assign a committee - like WIPO was done with the DNS<BR>
system - to interfere and take control of the assignment<BR>
mechanism away from ARIN.<BR>
<BR>
ARIN will cease to exist and chaos will ensue. Previously signed<BR>
contracts will be voided out under the guise of an emergency. There<BR>
is plenty of legal precedent for this - for example, in the US a bankruptcy<BR>
court can wipe out contracts if it wants.<BR>
<BR>
As a follower of politics, I personally think this argument<BR>
has a lot of validity. But the Board and ARIN staff and many<BR>
people are falling for the idea that the problem is in the<BR>
transfer policy. It IS NOT and NEVER HAS BEEN.<BR>
<BR>
It is in operations - it is failure to properly document<BR>
use of IP addressing.<BR>
<BR>
Any county government today has FAR BETTER documentation of<BR>
land deeds than ARIN has of orgs assigned to IP addressing.<BR>
And their taxation departments go to the utmost in finding<BR>
landowners.<BR>
<BR>
It is NOT necessary to create a buying-and-selling market of<BR>
IP numbers to obtain close to 100% use of routable IPv4. It<BR>
is merely necessary to prove that all assignable, routable IPv4<BR>
is in use on the Internet. Cleaning and grooming WHOIS is a<BR>
major first step.<BR>
<BR>
IMHO what ARIN and the Board are attempting to do is take the<BR>
easy way out. They figure if they hang up a for-sale sign on<BR>
IP addressing that there's enough bottom-feeders and scavengers<BR>
out on the Internet who will be looking for a quick buck, who<BR>
will set themselves up as "brokers" of these IPv4 sales, that<BR>
if they end up getting sued, or if the United Nations decides<BR>
to get involved, that they can make the argument that since<BR>
a financial incentive now exists with this buying-and-selling market<BR>
to scavenge up old IPv4 addresses, obviously, there's no abandoned<BR>
IPv4 floating around on the Internet, because the scavengers<BR>
are out there fishing it out of the pond.<BR>
<BR>
IMHO this is a very weak argument. It also assumes that<BR>
after the former-bottom-feeders, now IP-brokers<BR>
have finished cleaning out the IPv4 pool of usable IPv4, that<BR>
they will mildly go off into the sunset, and disappear. That<BR>
isn't what will happen. Instead these people will simply<BR>
move into the business of creating complex obfuscating<BR>
schemes to get portable IPv6 to people who do not and never will<BR>
meet the qualifications for their own addressing - and the number of<BR>
routes in the dfz will soar to immense levels.<BR>
<BR>
It is like if the State of California decided that since they<BR>
can't document 10% of the current whereabouts of tax-dodging<BR>
landowners owning land in CA, that they should just declare that<BR>
any Realtor who thinks that a piece of land is abandoned<BR>
is now allowed to just sell it to the highest bidder - instead<BR>
of what they actually do, which is the state takes back ownership of the<BR>
property as a result of failure to pay taxes.<BR>
<BR>
It is an utterly ridiculous argument when applied to most<BR>
scarce resources, and the reason some people are thinking<BR>
it has validity to IP addressing is simply because they aren't<BR>
very experienced with the messes that are created when trying to do this<BR>
kind of thing with public resources.<BR>
<BR>
Ted<BR>
<BR>
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